Netflix reverts bitrate to normal 4K HDR

According to FlatpanelsHD, users in Europe have said that the streaming quality has returned to its normal 4K HDR up to 15Mb/s bitrate. Netflix is also working with ISPs to increase capacity.

In mid-March, Netflix lowered its bitrates in Europe and then in Africa.

The reason for lowering bitrates was to ease the strain of data traffic on networks, as a result of more people using the internet from home due to COVID-19.

Speaking to MyBroadband, Netflix said that the reduction would last 30 days, starting at 23:59 on 30 March 2020.

“Please note, we are working with ISPs to help increase capacity. In the last month alone we have added four times the normal capacity. As conditions improve we will lift these limitations,” said Netflix to FlatpanelsHD.

Bitrates is essentially the number of bits passed through a network per second. A higher bitrate means higher quality video streaming, as more data is streamed to a Netflix user per second.